Teething, nursing strike, or something else?

cfisher2008

Yesterday, DD barely ate. I would put her to the boob, she would latch, drink for just a few minutes (like 1-2 min), then unlatch and stuff her hands in her mouth. Then she would latch again but just comfort suck. Then unlatch and stuff her hands in her mouth. Then re-latch and comfort suck. Repeat all day and night. Fianlly, at noon today she ate a whole meal. What happened? If it happens again, should I pump after she eats?

Under.the.Rose

When DS was 4 months old he went through this exact same thing. He suddenly started spacing out his feedings so sometimes he would be going 4-5 hours inbetween (compared to 2 hours), once I realized he wasn't as hungry I stopped forcing him to eat every 2 hours because that's what I thought he wanted and that helped. 

When actually nursing him, the only way that would work would be for me to just keep switching sides. If he got bored or unlatched from one side, I'd immediately switch him to the other until he really "got down to business" and got a good feeding in.

I'm almost certain it was because of teething because a few weeks later his first few teeth started breaking through.